Christmas Cookies

This past Sunday we lit the last of the four outer candles which stood for joy. The girls are coloring what Joy looks like to them. What a fun activity! It's been so cool to see what they color each week!

Eva just a swingin' by the table enjoying us singing too!
thought it would be fun just to capture an everyday moment!

Can't leave Eva out...here she's in the swing again while we baked cookies yesterday!

Just after breakfast the girls helped me make cookies for our neighbor's for Christmas.

They really enjoyed washing everything for me as we finished!

Putting them in packages

All ready to go! I included Isaiah 9:6 onto the little card.

All bundled up and ready to deliver the cookies!

The girls were so excited to give the cookies. They took turns giving them out!

We made another batch this afternoon to add to the ones from yesterday to take for dessert for our small group dinner!

I love making special cookies for Christmas each year and sharing them! When we're in Arkansas we give them to family and friends for Christmas and it was fun to get to share with our neighbor's this year! It's so fun to get to share this time with the girls too!

Seven Years

Today is our 7th Anniversary!

We went out to celebrate last night. Some friends (the Cook's) came over to take care of the girls for us and we went out to eat at our favorite place Elements. We also got to do a little shopping!

It's kind of hard to believe seven years ago it was just us...and now we are a family five!

We thank God for all of our many blessings!!
And still, we wait to see what God has planned for us!

And just because...here's a picture of Eva before church this morning!

Reading, Singing, Laughing..Oh my!!!

Lately, Eva turns onto her side (from her back) I think she's trying to roll all the way over onto her belly but she hasn't gotten there yet! She can scoot herself around on the blanket though.

Here's the picture we're adding to one day at a time till Christmas, while telling the Christmas story (Luke 2) everyday...
Madilynn has been doing really well with her reading lately and has progressed to copying words that I write and then writing words that I say. She wrote 'got' and 'she' from me saying them, then she decided she wanted to write 'I got a fish' so she sounded it out and did it!

Another day she wrote this sentence. (She loves cats and loves playing cats- all the time!) (And no, we don't have one and don't plan on getting one!)

Friday night I took the big girls and we went to see a Christmas figure skating show at the local ice arena. The girls had fun and I enjoyed getting to do that with them! We only made it through half the show and left at intermission for bedtime.

Also, Friday night Daddy put the table back up in the dining room...it's all finished and looks great! Now we are on the lookout for 6 new chairs!

So, onto the Singing! Elizabeth has been singing a lot lately and can now sing her ABC's, Jesus Loves Me, and I've even caught her singing along to the radio. The song on the radio I notice her singing is called 'Your Name' and she sings 'Shout your name, shout your name filling up the skies with endless praise, endless praise, Yahweh, Yahweh' it's so sweet!

Singing her ABC's



Jesus Loves Me




Peace like a river

Eva is starting to giggle some lately and I tried to catch it on video, I think I got it a little bit here right at the beginning...

Eva is FOUR months old!

*Update* Since her doctor appt. this morning Eva weighs 14lbs. 140z. and is 25in. long! She was in the 75th percentile for both height and weight! She surprised me, I was guessing she'd weigh about 13lbs.

Eva we can't believe you are four months old already! You're getting so big, but yet I see that you are still so little! We go to the doctor on Monday, so we'll have to update her weight and height then.

She is such a good sleeper and still sleeps a solid 9hrs. at night! By this age the other girls were going 4rs. between bottles, but I haven't felt the need to change Eva's schedule yet, it's still working well for all of us that she has a bottle every 3hrs. If I change it, it may lessen her nightly sleep by an hour and I don't see why I need to do that if she's sleeping so well, so we'll see. I'm sure we'll adjust to some sort of new schedule once she starts some solid foods in the next few weeks.

She loves to smile and coo and talk to us, sometimes long conversations. Lately we've been able to get some giggles out of her and they are just precious! I'll have to try to get a video soon.

I've noticed the last couple of days when I put her down on a blanket to "play" and few minutes later she'll be turned around opposite from where I put her. So, in other words she can turn herself in circles on her back. She's trying to roll over from her back to belly and she gets all the way onto her side and that's how she does circles it's so funny to watch. She doesn't stay still that's for sure!
She's doing better with tummy time and will "play" a little now before getting fussy. She's started playing with toys more now, everything goes to her mouth. And her favorite thing is to try to fit her fists in her mouth.

Elizabeth wanted to get in on the picture taking. I love how Eva is looking at her!

All the girls - so sweet!

They love each other so much! After baths tonight Daddy brought Eva in and said night night and Madilynn & Elizabeth both gave her kisses before bed!

It's been a while...

So, I realize it's been a while since I posted. I guess we've been pretty busy livin' life lately! We've been working with Elizabeth on using the potty, and trying to finish our table along with getting ready for Christmas.

In the past two weeks I've thought at least a couple of times Elizabeth would be potty trained by Christmas for sure and then there were more accidents. I've devoted lots of time to the potty training business this past week which means we've spent lots of time at home, but we're still not really there. We are having success in one area (I haven't changed a dirty diaper in a week), but still not totally there yet. I've decided to wait until she decides to tell me that she needs to go potty each time.

playing around one afternoon during Eva's tummy time!

Speaking of our table...we moved it to an extra room downstairs (that doesn't have carpet) to refinish the top (and make the leaf match). This picture was taken during the staining process.
We are currently applying the last couple of coats of polyurethane now! Hopefully the table will re-appear in our dining room in the next couple of days - I can't wait!! For the last week and a half we've been using a teeny tiny table, and I think it's getting to me. We spend a lot of time at the table all throughout the day (maybe we're weird), but it's like the center of our home, anyways I'm really ready to have it back...it's looking great by the way! Michael has done a great job!! That table we got for free has served us well for seven years, and hopefully now it will last us several more years!
And...Christmas is coming! We are staying home this year and have begun some new family traditions. We wanted to celebrate this season with the girls and keep the focus on Jesus, his birth and what it meant for Jesus to come. We have been reading a little of the Christmas story (Luke 2) every day and adding figures to a poster, so the girls can see the story come together. We are also doing an advent wreath this year. It has five candles, four around the wreath (representing hope, peace, love & joy) and one in the middle (to represent Jesus). So, we started four Sundays before Christmas and we light an additional candle each Sunday along with a little message prepared by Daddy and some songs we sing out of an old hymnal. We thought it appropriate to use candles since "The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world." John 1:9

Thanksgiving Week!

We had a big week! Granny & Pepaw (possible name change to "Gramps') came to visit us for the week. Gramps meeting Eva for the first time...

Sunday afternoon we went over to the ice-skating rink during the public skate to let the girls give it a try. The last time we were there almost 2 years ago - Madilynn didn't care for it and just wanted Daddy to carry her - so that was Elizabeth this time!

Not wanting her picture taken

ready to take off!

this was about as far as Elizabeth got, then Daddy carried her

Madilynn used what they called a walker and did really well! I think if I got out there I'd need the walker - ha!!

still havin' fun! Madilynn lasted the entire hour and a half - she loved it!

Tuesday morning we did a little finger painting!

they loved it and made several paintings!

Michael and I got out for a little date on Tuesday night and went to see the movie Courageous. It was good, but I don't know if I've ever cried so much through a movie at the theatre.

Wednesday was Granny's birthday! She spent the day with the big girls at the fun park and then to lunch. We all went to dinner together and then had cupcakes at home!

Granny & Eva

Granny & Gramps with the grandbabies!

The table all set for our Thanksgiving meal

our spread...a lot to be thankful for!

So after eating way too much at lunch, and getting a little rest/naptime we went to do some roller skating! Again this is about as far as Elizabeth got and then the skates came off and she enjoyed just running around us while we skated we were the only ones there skating!

Eva was just hanging out...

Granny & Daddy being silly!

All of us (that were skating)

Madilynn really started to get the hang of it right about the time we were ready to go.

Mommy & Eva

sweet baby sleeping...

Saturday we decided to get the Christmas decor out and put up our tree. Daddy got it all together and fluffed out...

Eva hung out and watched us

Then the big girls and I got to work decorating it!

hanging her ornament on the tree

Madilynn hanging her ornament on the tree

I didn't have a good finished tree picture, they were all blury, so we'll have to get one of those soon! Well, today is Monday and we're all feeling it, but ready to get back into our routines! Thank you God for our time together, and thank you for our many blessings!

Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:18